


Kinder: The Confrontation

by erasvita



Category: Those Who Went Missing
Genre: Gen, Mountain wanderer, Raaga, TWWM, The Confrontation, esk, kinder goes home, kinder is blessed, mountain biome event
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-07
Updated: 2019-03-07
Packaged: 2019-11-13 06:46:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,727
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18026783
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/erasvita/pseuds/erasvita
Summary: Chapter 1: What Dwells Beneath the CanopyChapter 2: Where Clouds Fade Into SnowChapter 3: Where the River EndsChapter 4 PromptRaagablessesKinder.





	Kinder: The Confrontation

Three shrines, three different outcomes: perhaps this adventure had been simply by chance, and her decisions were merely a coincidence. Or perhaps it had been deliberate, a quest designed with the red-faced esk in mind, destined to be a spiritual and life-altering event. 

Whatever it was, she knew it was a journey she was not soon to forget.

But neither was it over yet. 

The shrine sings happily, rejuvenating Kinder with the energy she had expended to get to this point. Nonetheless, her spirit is tired - tired of being pulled from mountain to mountain without a choice, tired of her confrontation with each shrine, tired of the decisions she’s had to face. It would be so nice to lay here at the statue’s feet and rest, if only for a moment.

“We should go,” the wolf growls from behind her.

For a moment, she’s silent. She isn’t ready to leave yet; they don’t know what still awaits them. They might face more shrines, or more visions, and more difficult choices. But here is easy, here is peaceful; the stream is bubbling, a light breeze sending the plants at the water’s edge to dancing. 

Kinder supposed if she couldn’t go home, staying here wouldn’t be so bad.

The wolf whined.

With a sigh, the esk rose to her feet. With one last, lingering look at the shrine, and the woman’s face carved into the statue, she turned away. “All good things must end,” the wolf reminded her, but Kinder did not answer. 

Overhead, the sun was beginning to sink slowly closer to the western horizon. The shadows across the canyon floor were deepening, the sky reflecting in brilliant colors off the red rock walls. As day turned to dusk, the heat of the desert began to fade with the sun. Kinder hardly noticed: her head was lowered, eyes heavy and drowsy. The wolf was walking in front of her, leading her, and she followed him blindly now. She hardly noticed when the mist began to manifest out of thin air, like a fog had suddenly settled over the canyon. The farther they ventured, the thicker it became, until it was curling around their legs with every step, dampening the fur of their coats.

“Just follow me,” the wolf assured her.

But he began to fade, flickering in and out of view much like the mirages from earlier. Kinder blinked, focusing her gaze on him, and the effect vanished. She watched him carefully for a few minutes, afraid to lose sight of him.

Finally convinced it was her imagination, she allowed her head to droop again. No sooner had she done so than he began fade again, his form blinking in and out of existence. 

And this time, she could feel a similar fluttering deep in her chest. It was the tug from before, its grip tightening around her soul. She didn’t have the energy to protest, to fight against it. For a moment she even allowed herself a little bit of hope - perhaps, finally, it would let her go home. Maybe fixing the token had been all the mountains wanted, and she had finally chosen right and her task was now at an end.

Of course, she was foolish to think herself so lucky. 

As the fog begins to dissipate, mist spinning away into nothing, she was greeted not with the familiar green landscape of her boundary, but another mountain view. 

This time, she was on top of a grand peak, looking out over an expanse of similar summits. The world bends away at the edges of its horizon, and turned so pale it matched the sky and made the distinction between heaven and earth difficult. Overhead the sky is impossibly blue, without a hint of the clouds or fog from before. The dark esk takes a moment to appreciate the spectacular sight, one so few in the world got to witness. 

But an unfamiliar voice disturbed the moment. She turns slowly, and for a moment thinks she is looking at another moment, one that rises sharply before her and who’s snowy surface is broken up by patches of black. Atop the mountain is an expanse of massive boulders, taller than any she’s seen before, covered in soft black moss. _How odd_ , she begins to think, _that the snow is at the bottom, not the top._

Until, of course, the mountain begins to move. And Kinder realizes it’s not snow she’s looking at, but smooth, white fur. And the black is not patches of barren ground on a cliff side, but bold markings along the sides of a mountainous esk. 

He turns his head around to look at her, and his eye is nearly bigger than the esk herself. For several long seconds, Kinder is stunned into silence by his presence. 

Raaga watches her. His expression is hard to read; he seems to know what she’s been through, the choices she was faced with and the decisions she’s made. Her journey had been an inconsistent one, each challenge met with a different reaction, a different outcome; and her inconsistency is reflected on the wanderer’s face. One moment he seems almost pleased, or at least appears to regard her with something akin with admiration. The next she can feel the judgement rolling in quiet waves off of him, the way he seems wary and looks her over with suspicion, as if gauging her next move. And still she’s not so sure if she’s imagining it all, and is actually indifferent to her and her quest.

But either way, his look is one of _knowing_ , and Kinder can’t help but think that perhaps it was him who brought her all this way, that he is the cause of this all. 

The wolf prowls at the edges of her vision, always just out of sight. It’s just Kinder and Raaga facing each other.

“You have been on quite the journey,” he says at last, and his voice reminds her of a growl. It’s gruff and gravelly, as if he hasn’t spoken in a long time. It sends a shiver down the esk’s spine.

“I do not know what took you to those shrines; it was not me.” 

She blinks, watching him closely as he moves closer. His brow seems to narrow, as if he’s frustrated that there’s something he doesn’t know. But he shakes his head slowly, and does not explain his thoughts. And when he speaks again, Kinder is sure she isn’t imagining the suspicion that colors his tone.

“I do not know what your intentions were, but you have greatly affected my mountains, stranger.”

If Kinder had a heart, it would surely stop beating at that statement. As it is, she regards the mountain wanderer with an uneasy expression. “I did not mean to have so great an effect,” she said, but her voice is weak, little more than a whisper. It makes Raaga’s sound strong in comparison. “I only did what I thought I had to.”

“Did you think it was your place? You are not from the mountain biome, you are not known to my mountains.”

Kinder shakes her head. She can see the wolf prowling, can hear his footfalls as he circles behind her; it’s distracting. “No,” she breathes. “But I did not choose to come here. Something brought me here.” _Something wanted me here, something made me choose, I only did what I had to._

And suddenly she isn’t sure if it’s the wolf that stalks behind her, or the lamb; she can smell the smoke, can hear the roaring of the fire. _“Ashes on wool,”_ it says, and _“fire burns hot.”_ She can feel heat on her fur, as the strings of nickels woven in her long hair writhes and expands. She feels as if she’s burning up, as if at any second the fire will win and consume her from the inside out. Flames lick along her sides and down her legs, their touch smoldering, suffocating. She wants to speak up, to tell him why, to tell him how the rock of the last statue was carved into a woman’s face, and how she _knew_ that face -

“Peace,” Raaga interrupts, and Kinder’s world goes abruptly silent. The flames are extinguished in an instant, a puff of smoke rising lonesomely into the air. 

For a moment, both esk say nothing. 

The wolf growls from behind her, but he prowls no more.

“It is time for you to go home,” Raaga says slowly. “You have been on quite the journey.”

He turns away. His steps seem slow - impossibly so, for one as big as he - but Kinder’s world is spinning again. The fog is back, creeping in from the corners of her vision as she stands frozen in place watching the wanderer retreat. The clouds are descending, hiding him from view, swallowing her whole.

And through it all is a pulse, stronger than the ones from before, feeling close to ripping her soul in two,

_“Thank you,”_ the wanderer’s voice follows her into the mist, _“for fixing the last shrine.”_

It takes seconds for her to teleport, but those seconds seem excruciatingly long. But finally, Kinder opens her eyes to see the fog clearly away on lush green fields, familiar green fields. It’s hardly too good to be true; she had not realized how much she had missed her boundary. It makes her feel stronger, and Kinder can feel the tiredness beginning to fade away.

“Where are we?”

The red-faced esk turns in surprise to see the wolf padding along behind her. “You came with me,” she says, and he almost seems to grin. 

“Of course I did. You said we would be together, forever more.”

It puts her soul at ease, to have him with her. The wolf is a part of her - a part she hadn’t realized was missing, until she found him. He comes to sit beside her, tilting his head as he looks over her boundary. _Their_ boundary, the abandoned sheep farm she had known all her life, both as an esk and as a lamb. It feels different now; or maybe it’s she who’s changed. It’s as if she knows a secret the rest of the world doesn’t.

“Where are we?” he repeats.

The breeze catches, running its fingers through Kinder’s fur. She lifts her head, tired, yet content. 

“Home.”

**Author's Note:**

>  **Final word count: 1727**  
>  **AP Breakdown**  
>  Base Score: 34 AP (Writing: 1727 words)  
> +2 AP (Large Familiar/Swarm: 2 AP * 1)  
> +5 AP (Elemental: 5 AP * 1)  
> +20 AP (NPC Bonus)  
> +25 AP (Event Bonus) (+15 shattered peaks, +5 biome, +5 wordcount challenge)  
> +20 AP (Esk Interaction Bonus: 10 AP * 2)  
> +16 AP (Storyteller Bonus: 8 AP * 2)  
>  _Total AP per submission: 122_
> 
> **GP Breakdown**  
>  Base Score: 17 GP (Writing: 1727 words)  
> +2 GP (Large Familiar/Swarm: 2 GP * 1)  
> +5 GP (Elemental: 5 GP * 1)  
> +12 GP (Event Bonus) (+8 shattered peaks, +2 biome, +2 wordcount challenge)  
> +12 GP (Storyteller Bonus: 6 GP * 2)  
>  _Total GP per submission: 48_
> 
>  
> 
> Commissioned by [Remaryn](https://remaryn.wixsite.com/twwm)


End file.
